Dances for Solidarity is a dance project with men and women in solitary confinement throughout the United States.
The project began as a letter writing campaign between artists and activists in New York and incarcerated people in Texas and Louisiana. Each letter initiated with the same 10-step Dance for Solidarity as a means to initiate a conversation around movement. The project has been in correspondence with more than 200 people incarcerated in solitary confinement through its chapters in New York and Denver.
Photos by Maria Cobb and Sabree Hill
This remixed, 90-minute version of Carmen was my opera stage directing debut, which played to sold-out audiences at Opera Columbus.
Role: Stage Director
A co-production between the Boston University School of Music: Opera Institute and School of Theatre.
Full cast and creative list, program, and additional photos.
I was the second recipient of the Crane Directing Fellowship at Opera Columbus. I assisted in the stage direction and movement direction of Rigoletto, Maria de Buenos Aires, and La Cenerentola.
I will be directing Opera Columbus’ production of Carmen to open the 2023-24 season.
Listen to an interview with me on Operaisms.
Photos courtesy of Terry Gillum and Thomas Fortin.
A Little Island commission for the NYC Free Festival, 2021
Sarah Dahnke - concept and lead direction/choreography
Sunny Hitt - associate choreographer/director
Karilyn Surratt - assistant choreographer
Gloria Babini, Eunice Bae, Sofía Figueroa, Estefania Giraldo, Sereena Marcano, Anthony Vaughn Merchant, JoAnna Powell, and Jaki Soreff - cast and choreography collaborators
Jessie Wayburn - production stage manager
Karen Boyer - costumes
Community Collaboration: Hudson Guild
Luke Ohlson: camera operator and video editor
Desmond Reich: camera operator
Drone footage: @alexkarry on Youtube
Video by 7Cinema
This piece offers a repeatable series of phrases and vignettes that converge and accumulate as they travel across Little Island, a new park in Manhattan, NYC. Shaped by the imagination and desires of long-time local residents in surrounding neighborhoods, who will collaborate on and perform in the project, a central question persists, “What would it feel like to create your own island?”
Dusty magic, country witches.
Created in Battle Lake, Minnesota during the 2019 DanceBARN Festival in collaboration with all artists credited.
NEWS OF THE STRANGE is a Medieval Arab fantasy suite in the western disco era cookout tradition. It contains sorrows, difficulties, and dangers, grave matters, the revelation of hidden secrets, heavy cares and troubles following one after the other, including drones, dancing, glamping, cloud-chasing vaping carnatic jinn, Western Oriental reverberations, poetry and reports.
Premiere: Target Margin Theater
Created by: Moe Yousef
Choreography by: Sarah Dahnke
Scenic Design: You-Shin Chen
Lighting Design: Reza Behjat
Costume Design: Dina El-Aziz
Musical Director / Composer / Sound Design: Eamon Goodman
Additional Compositions & Sound Design: Viniyata Pany
Photos by: Maria Baranova
Music video for People’s Champs debut album “American Dreamers”
Choreographer, Producer and Editor: Sarah Dahnke
Co-Producer: Alex Asher
Co-Editor and Lead Cameraman: Aaron Rockers
Second Camera: Philip Maniaci
Additional Editing: William Rudberg
Graphic Design: Leyla Moore
Dancers: Gabriella Agranat-Getz, Alex Asher, Sarah Dahnke, Kristina Donello ,Seth Johnson, Amy Khoshbin, Susan Ngo, Jordan Scannella, Šara Stranovsky, Luke Tracy, and Linh Truong
New York Transit Line is a public, participatory performance created for the New York Transit Museum. Audience members became performers in a giant platform line dance that culminated in a parade through the museum.
A tutorial created for and distributed by the New York Transit Museum
The Brooklyn Shuffle was a disco-inspired line dance taught to non-professional dancers and passers-by at street festivals and gatherings.
Live, from Fire Island
This video tutorial was published and distributed ahead of several big street festivals where the Brooklyn Shuffle was being taught and performed.
Untitled America project is a short, quirky dance film about hyper-American culture.
Selection of:
Long Legs, Short Films (DCTV and Dance Films Association), New York, NY
BRIC Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Tiny Dance Film Festival, San Francisco, CA
Movies by Movers, North Carolina
SXSW says, "It's not that well shot and the dancing isn't that well done."
Directed and choreographed by Sarah Dahnke
Starring Kana Sato and Scarlett Yu
Cinematography by Maurice Lai
Additional sound by Jenna Liberati
A storm. An army of children. A fiesta in the distance. A changing landscape. An unending strength and beauty.
“A Song in the Wind” attempts to capture the ephemeral experience of daily life on Olango Island (Philippines) through movement and sound.
Starring local citizens of the island as performers.
Premiere: QFS Gallery in Cebu City, Philippines
Created while in residence at The Unified Field Artist-in-Residence Program. Special thanks to Marta Moreno Muñoz.
Direction/Choreography/Camera/Editing: Sarah Dahnke
Performers: Lucia Juezan, Robert B. Taneo, Jhon Freddie Igot, Rodelo T. Masobay, Eleazar A. Juezan, Dheyland I. Manuod, Jhon Riel Arong, Richard I. Capias, Stephen Sagarino, and the children of Olango
A dance film on Super-8
Dancer: Elisabeth Asher
Trombone: Alex Asher
Direction and Camera by Sarah Dahnke
